1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a keyboard-video-mouse peripheral (KVMP) switch system, more particularly, a keyboard-video-mouse peripheral (KVMP) switch system that can individually control KVM and peripheral channels in the KVMP switch system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many computer servers capable of performing general purpose and specialized tasks require a computer room with raised floor and air conditioning. Due to tight office space requirements and high expense of the server room, there a continual demand to reduce the space occupied by the computer servers. In response to the demand for space reduction, Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) switch systems have been developed to allow a single video display, a character input device and a pointing device (e.g., a set of console devices) to communicate with one or more computer servers by users, thereby reducing the overall server room space requirements.
As variations of computer device applications increase and additional channels are connected to servers, the KVMP switch system must now provide multiple channels that can be connected with Universal Serial Bus (USB) peripherals, such as USB hub, USB printer, USB scanner, USB camera, and so on. Typically, the switch between of a peripheral device is often synchronous with the switch over the channels of the computer server coupled in the same set of console devices. In other words, while switching the control of the console device among different servers and peripheral devices, the data flow communication between a first server and a peripheral device is often interrupted when a second server and a second peripheral device are connected through the KVMP switch system. However, synchronous interruption of the data flow between the peripheral device and the server can be a significant inconvenience and limits operational flexibility. In some conventional practices, additional buttons and/or complicated procedures are required to separately control switching between computer servers and peripheral devices. The complicated procedures are time consuming and often result in errors due to the user's confusion.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved KVMP switch system that can individually control switching of servers and peripheral devices coupled to the KVMP switch system,